The Draymond Green Show - Lakers Surging, LeBron's Injury, Dame's 71

up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. As you know, we are officially officially back from All Star Break. Last time we spoke, we were kind of gear enough to get ready to start the season back from Austar break. Games are back, going to dubs or two and one since the break, losing to the Lakers, but coming home and beating the Rockets, and also Sunday Night's game, we were able to get a comeback win at home versus

the Timber was which was a huge win. Coming into that game, I think we were thirty and thirty and they were thirty one and thirty one, so right there in the standing, pretty big time win for us. Obviously missing Steph Wiggins myself, gp Andre guys went out there and got it done. Was a huge win, which we will get straight into that nas Read. First off, nas Read. It started like nas Reads, just like playing against the Warriors.

This guy comes out and has incredible games. I've always been a fan of nas Ree since he came into the league. I would have conversations with him as a rookie, like, yo, you got some game, and if you get your body in shape and lose some weight, like it really take your game to the next level. And he's done every bit of that. He's gotten an incredible shade, which is why you see it up ticking the monster dunks from

nas Red. But he is, he's playing really well, and that team they seem to play better when he's playing at the five, which I think is an interesting, very interesting thing. The space scene is different. Uh ant Man didn't have a great game Sunday night against us, but he's able to get into pain and I think our our defense, our guys did a great job of standing in the shell and making him play in a crowd, so he just didn't see gaps that he can drive.

And then the jump jump shot wasn't going, so that was good. And I think we did a good job there. Dante Defencenzo had another great game. Clay Thompson, Clay has been playing extremely well. Dante actually said something last night. I came across a quote where he said, like, yeah, like, it's Clay Thompson and he's what do you expect, like Hall of Famer and quite frankly, that that is the league that we're playing in. It's always what have you done for me lately? And so you know, Clay may come.

It's like they said on Washed and you know, uh, still chasing greatness and all of those things. And so it's great to see Clay having the games that he's been having, especially during a time where we're without staff, where we're missing so many guys, including myself the last couple of games. Quite frankly, I'm I am planning on playing tonight versus the Blazer's barn that you know, everything leading up to this game stay status quote. But I

got a number. I I know everybody was wondering where did I get hurt or how did I get hurt? It was on one play versus the Lakers in the third quarter. Jared Andrewbill had the ball and he's like stumbling down the paint losing the ball and his knee goes right into mine. And like I didn't start hopping anohing, But on that play, I just stayed there at the ball. We took the ball, we went down the court, and I just stayed there with my hand on my knee, and I was just standing there for a while, like

holding my knee because it hurt like hell. And you know, the MRI, I came back no structural damage. Obviously, there's some fluid in my knee from the knock. You know, that's just created a little bit of swelling, which has helped me out the last two games. And then, you know, after it seemed that it wasn't improving much over the first day or two, decided to get an MRI before Sunday's game, and like I said, it came back clean. So at that point, for me, it's just about tolerating

the pain. And there's obviously still a little pain there from a you know, you go need to need those things hurt, especially when you go to kneed a knee with the super bony guys like Jared Vanderbilt, Like you catch your knee from those guys and they hurt like hell, and so, like I said, so at this point, it's just about managing the fluid, you know, continuing to try to get all of that out. But I'm ready to go.

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That's g r e E in for twenty dollars off no matter where you live, get out and have some fun this week. Download game Time today, last minute tickets, Lord's Price guaranteed. And I'm looking forward to playing with the guys tonight. Like I said, two on one since the All Star Break, Blazers I think are two or three games behind us and the standings, but more importantly than them being behind us, only two or three games

in the standings. We need wins and the Dubs are now twenty four and seven if I'm not mistaken, and home games, and you know, we gotta take care our home court. As you know, we've been complete shit on the road, so you gotta at least take care of the ones at home, and been doing a great job of that. Like I said, the other night was a huge or Sunday night was a huge win, and we

got to continue to build on that. When you have an injury that's not a structurally damaging one like you obviously avoided bigger structural issues with the MRI, so now it's more of a pain tolerance issue. But then what's that process like and what's the communication, like in terms of you and the coaching staff and the training staff. Is it you going to them saying, hey, I feel pretty good, finally I'm ready to play. Is it them saying maybe we should take another day to rest it?

Like what is that communication chain? Sort of like when it comes to non long term injuries, for me, it's about like, you know, then they're just totally going off how you feel about the pain now and saying that you get the knee not that I have with the bruis or whatnot, and it shuts down other things. Okay, so your VMO shuts down, which is your you know, right the muscle right on the inside of your knee, right in the inside of your quad, which is a

very important stabilization muscle that starts to shut down. Your IT bands start to shut down when you get those Those are extremely important stabilization muscles. So if you get those shutting down, then you put yourself at risk or

something else, you know. And so that's where kind of my conversation is with Rick or like, all right, Rick, while I feel good enough to go play, and he's like, all right, yeah, but we have to make sure that those muscles are firing the correct way, because if they're not,

then they make you susceptible to this injury. And so I think it actually goes into like the low management thing, right, There are times like that where it's like, yes, you actually could get out there and play right, but if something else is affected that can create a much worse injury than what you're already going through, then maybe you do take another game or two, you see, And so I think people don't necessarily always understand that side of

things as well. On the risks and what else it's opening up as far as your body goes and how every the whole entire chain matters. Those are all the

things that you have to take into account. And I think that's where the conversation and trust a monks the training staff comes into play, because amongst with the training staff and the player comes into play because you have to be honest, right, Like, I'm not going to go in there and lie and say I feel one percent great, because then you're not allowing them to use their expertise.

So I'm gonna go be totally honest and say, all right, well I still feel some pain, but not enough pain to where I can't do X, Y, and Z, you know, and then he'll say, all right, well, here's what we have to watch. We have to make sure you're a being most fire and we have to make sure your IT bands, your gluts and everything are active. We have to do X, Y and Z, and then we can go from there, right, And so that dialogue is extremely important.

Honesty and trust is extremely important because that's the way you work. You work through those The loss to the Lakers was a tough one. Obviously, you're coming off All Star break and you know, those guys play really well. They shot the ball extremely well, and you know, it's it's been interesting seeing this new look Lakers team, you know, where they have more spacing, they have Jared Vanderbilt doing

the small things. Malik Beasley is just out there firing and as we all know, Malik can shoot the hell out of the ball. De Loo has been out since our game. Um, you know, he went out with I think an ankle injury. Braun dealing with the foot injury actually to the opposite foot than the one that he's been dealing with for most of the year. I thought it was very interesting and watching that game, he said, he said very clearly like I heard a pop, and anytime you hear an athlete say I heard a pop,

that's never good. Um. Now, Lebron went ahead and finished the game, and you know they were able to come out with a win, which was a huge win them going to Dallas. We under knowing where the standings are. Dallas just got Kyrie, so two new look teams. Um, you know, Lakers goes down twenty twenty seven points I think twenty twenty seven points in the second quarter and they fought back to win that game. We just received news that Bron is going to be out for indefinitely

for multiple games. That hurts the Lakers a lot. Uh. This is a team that's starting the role that's you know, four and one in their last five games. We all understand where they are in the standings. Uh, they got some ground to continue to make up, which you know, looking at their their new look team seemed more than capable and like they're going to make that ground up. Now you got Lebron out for um multiple games. What does that mean? Well, d Low has been out for

the last two games. I think since our game he's been out. Now you take Lebron out, that's two of your three ball handlers that you have on the roster now out. Not sure when d Low will be back, but now you only have Dinner Schroder as as a primary ball handler that can get tough. And so I mean, you'd hope that Lebron is not out for long. You

hope he's back sooner rather than later. But to say I heard a pop in my foot and then have a noticeable limp after and then it come out a day later that you're out in definitely that's not a good sign. Like I said, especially with the Lakers needing to win these games coming up. It's never a good sign with a guy going out like that, especially with a foot injury. Bronze Broun is the size of centers in the NBA today and moving like guards still, So

the foot that's very very important. So we now know that Lebron will miss multiple games. We will see how the Lakers fair now over these games that Lebron is out, obviously you expect a heavy dose, so Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis is going to have to step it up even more. But you know, we'll see how it turns out. Wishing Brown a speedy recovery, you know year twenty still doing and how he's doing it. You never want to see

guys injured, so wishing him a speedy recovery. But we have to keep our eyes out now on the Lakers, and you know, just when it rains, it pours. Man. It just seems like they're starting to turn the corner with their new roster, and then this happened, so super unfortunate, but that's why they retool the roster so they still have it, so they'll still have a chance and we'll see what those guys are capable of doing while Brown is out. Turn every Thursday into Payday with TNT Thursdays

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of the NBA. And it's saying that in speaking of my injury and me getting back, and you know, tonight's game, we are hosting the Trailblazers with Damian Lillard coming in, Dame coming off seventy one points on Sunday. Dame made some comments as of late that I want to touch. But number one, let's just talk about the seventy one point performance. Absolutely incredible, not surprised at all. As we all know, Dame is capable of putting up huge numbers.

He's done as his entire career. But they made some comments earlier where he said, or not earlier, but recently where he said, you're judged. You know, players are judged by if they win a championship or not, and people will devalue you based on whether you win a championship or not. So that's that's and this is a sum up of its quote. I'm not going word for word, but he said, that's why I want to win one just to really validate everything else that I've done. And

I think my initial thought was very true. People definitely devalue what you've done if you don't win a championship. Why is that? Quite frankly, I think in most cases is warranted. Like, ultimately, we play to win, like you play the game. What's the old? What's the old the football commercials? You play to win like you played the game. That's why you play the game, like you play the game to win. And so at the end of the day, yes,

you are going to be judged off winning championships. Now, I don't think that's the only thing, um, but you that that is a big part of it, Like that

is what gives validation. That's um why you watch TNT inside the NBA and and Chuck or Shock and Kenny are extremely faster throughout their rings while Chuck sits there and can't have that conversation right Like how you know, you go into the playoffs and you want to talk about um winning championships and what needs to go go into it, and you can't really talk from experience lessons your argument. It lessens the impact of your statements that

you're making. And so to Dame's point, I think at times, you know, at times it does suck because the reality is most people don't have feel and especially feel for the game in basketball. So if you're talking to someone that have field, they can kind to they can kind of separate the two. Now you start to get into those weeds and talking about championships and all that, then it's hard to separate the two. But they can separate the two. And what I mean by that, I can

appreciate Dame for everything Dame's done. I can appreciate Dame for who he is as a player, how incredible he is. And know that I mean, at the end of the day, quite frankly, Dame has not played on a championship team like Dame hasn't played on a team anywhere near capable

of winning the championship. He played on the team that made it to the Western Conference finals, quite frankly, and a great That team that Dame played on that made the Western Conference Finals played in the Western Conference the day wouldn't sniff the Western Conference finals. Like and it's no knock to Dame or CJ. Those guys were really doing it. But the rest of their roster that was not a Western Conference Finals roster, which I think we probably swept them, or one in five we won in five.

We played most of those games without Steph. That team wasn't very good. Dame and CJ did a lot of carrying to get that team there. That front office then when and paid all of those guys that was on that team because they thought they were going to be trashed. They snuck up on everybody and had a decent year and go to the West Conference Finals, and then that front office is going to pay all of those guys and leave them and ship for the next three or

four years. Dame hasn't played on the champion team. So I can look at that and understand what makes up a championship team and say, yes, Dame hasn't won a championship, but Dame also hasn't been in a position to win a championship. Now, it's one thing if you've had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to win championships and you did it with teams that are capable of winning championships and

you did it. That's not the case for Dame. But you'll always get lumped into like this overarching group of guys who hasn't won a championship but are great players. And yes, ultimately, when it boils down to it, if you didn't win, I mean, you do go into that. But basketball minds and people that understand winning championships know that it's so it's about so much more than just Dame's performance. And Dame has consistently shown you what his

performances are going to be. But you still need the roster, the right rooster around you to win championships. And when when the Blazers not talking about the current Blazers team, I'm talking about the Blazers teams of the past when they were like making those playoff runs and they got to the Western Conference Finals that wasn't not a championship team, wasn't even a Western Conference Finals team. But Damon CJ stepped up and they did what they had to do.

They sent teams home, they sent the team's home that they probably shouldn't have sent home, but they did that. And so you gotta get those guys credit. But I agree with Dane, you go win that championship. It one thousand percent stamps everything he's done and anything that anyone has to say. It takes that away because we all know what this resume is, absolutely an incredible resume. Looking forward to us going out there and playing him to night,

him making sure he don't get seventy one points. Gotta make someone else beat you. You cannot just allow Dame necessarily to beat you. You have like if you're in a situation like that. But I looked at I looked at their stats at halftime. Dame have forty one, Jeremy had ten. No one else is in double dishes, Like, come on, Houston, Like, come on, man, like, at least make someone else shoot. I don't even think anyone else was shooting the ball. But shout out the Dame on

an incredible performance. And I'm looking forward to us trying to put an end too that tonight. But the scoring run that Dame has been on as a whole, I think Dame's average Kobe at one stretch in OH five oh six average like forty game over the course of like twenty something games. Dame is on a similar run, averaging thirty nine a game over like twenty games or right around twenty games, which I think is absolutely amazing. We know the player of Dame is and it's been

great to see him do that. Oh, it's time to get ready for this game. I give myself, get getting my routine, get going so we can take down these Blazers tonight. We really need this win. As I said, we have to really protect our home court because the role has not been too generous to us. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. We will be back later this week with an interview Asian Zero, No chill gil We got Gilbert Arenas and as you know, Gilbert is not shy. He's gonna say what he thinks. He's

gonna say what he feels. And I think it was a great, great interview. I enjoyed it. I hope you all enjoy it later this week as much as I enjoy hosting the interview and hosting Gilbert Arenas. Great time. You see you all back here for that later this week and top of the show next week. Until next time. That's a rat from the Draymond Green show piece Livid Livid, Livid, Lit and Livid, Livid, Liver and Liver, Livid Livers and Livid, livd Livers and lid Li